Overview

• Ekgmowechashala, a lemur-like primate, was the last non-human primate to inhabit North America about 30 million years ago, during a period of significant cooling and drying which made the continent less hospitable to primates.
• Researchers from the University of Kansas and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing used fossil teeth and jawbones found in Nebraska and China to trace the primate's origins back to Asia, proving that Ekgmowechashala immigrated to North America rather than evolved there.
• Ekgmowechashala's Asian origins were confirmed through the discovery and analysis of a 'sister taxon' named Palaeohodites (or 'ancient wanderer') found in China, which showed striking similarities in dental remains and helped establish their evolutionary relationship in a phylogenetic tree.
• Despite its seemingly sudden appearance in the North American fossil record millions of years after other primates in the region had gone extinct, Ekgmowechashala was not a descendant of an older, surviving primate but rather an immigrant species that crossed over the Beringian region during a surprisingly cool period.
• The findings offer insights into the changing nature of our planet's environment and climate, and illustrate how organisms must either adapt to such shifts or face extinction; the primate's survival story, facilitated by migration, holds valuable lessons for studying and mitigating the current climate crisis induced by human activities.